Amalgamating apparatus and process



Nov. 6, I1934. c. BUT-rens 1,979,365

AMALGAMATING APPARATUS AND PROCESS Filed, Sept. 25. 1932 `l /J l j /4 IN V EN TOR.

H614- Wow/U55 Barra/e5 Patented Nov. 6, 1934 L i UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE AMALGAMATING APPARATUS AND rnocEss CharlesButters, Berkeley, Calif. Application september za, 1932, serial No. 334,413

s claim. (ci. 20s-44) This invention relates to apparatus and proctransversely to the direction of flow. These rifesses for extracting fine -gold from beach sand fle plates or trays are preferably of moulded reand other gold bearing sands or deposits and the silient tough rubber with each section in one principal object of the invention is to Iprovide piece and with the pockets about a half inch more improved apparatus operating on a new,fmethod or less in width andfdepth with rounding bottoms, 60

which will more effectively recover gold and other and partition walls 12 slanting f backwardly values in such deposits by amalgamation,` esagainst the direction of flow as shown in Fig. 2. pecially what is known as lrusty" or scaled" g'old 'Ihe angle of the table is about 3/4 inch per foot which does not yield to ordinary methods of and within the pockets of the trays are loose amalgamation as heretofore carried out. .in-k rods 13 of copper with their surfaces amalga- 65 other object of the invention is to provide such mated with quicksilver. These rods are preferapparatus and process which may be operated on ably round of about 1% or 1A inch diameter, and a very large scale in the commerciall recovery of they may be roughened or finely threaded or nne gold. Other objects and advantages of the grooved from end to end so as to hold more 15 invention willappear in the following speciflcaamalgam as indicated at 14 in Fig. 4, while in 70 tion and accompanying drawing. length they are about an inch shorter than the In the drawing Fig. 1 is a plan view of one unit lengtl; of the pockets, so as to slide back and forth of an installation of my improved apparatus. endwise in the pockets and rebound when they Fig. 2 is a vertical section through the special strike the rubber end walls of the pockets. I have rime construction employed. found one rod in a pocket to be sufficient though 75 Fig. 3 is a cross section of Fig. 2 as seen along more may be used.

the line 3--3 thereof. The trays may be held in place on the table Fig. 4 is a plan view of a portion of an amalas by strips of wood nailed to the table between gamating rod. f each row, and held from sliding down the slanted Briefly described, my invention comprises a deck of the table by any suitable means such 80 battery of special vibratory rimes incorporating as pins 17 (Fig. 3) projecting upward from the means for constantly cleaning or grinding the table into the upper or both ends of the trays, rusty gold particles and constantly subjecting it all so that the trays while fitting snugly in place, to friction against moving amalgamating surmay be easily pulled out for emptying or cleanfaces in the form of hundreds of small loose rods ing when desired. 85

in the pockets of the special rime board and The above proportions and sizes of the memwhich rods may be easily taken out and washed bers are Suggestions merely, by way of pre1- of their accumulated values in warm mercury erenee, and are not to be held limiting in oily reand replaced. spect. A feature of importance is to have the y In further detail, Fig. 1 shows a gravity flow rods heavy enough so that due to their inertia 90 shaking table suitably supported or suspended at they will travel back and forth in the pockets a 51am by means not shown, but wen understood at a different speed than the travel of the sands in the art, and the table is provided with several and hence will Set up an abradns or scouring dozens of riille sections or trays 1 fed at the high alotion between the Pulp and the I'odS loosely im side by a suitable trough 2 fitted with spouts or bedded thelen- 95 side outlets 3 for flow of wet material across the Between every ten or more Dockets aS described riiile sections in direction of the arrow 4, while iS a Special grinding pocket of Somewhat larger means such as the eccentric 5 and rod 6 operat- Size and fitted with a Curved Shoe 15 of hard ing preferably `through a resilient link as the metal, Such as herd Steel. and loosely positioned spring '1, are provided for driving the table at in which is a herd metal rod 16 es of steel. This 100 about from 200 to 350 oscillations per minute in rod 1S about the length of, but considerably a direction as per double-headed arrow 8 or larger, than lhe Copper IodS referred ilo and it transversely to the direction of flow of material Works in the hollow of 1The Shoe like a grinding over the rimes, i roll so as to effectually grind and brighten any The body of the table may be of wood as indi- Sold particles not caught by the preceding poek- 105 cated in Fig. 3 at 9, with sides 10 and fitting beets and thus make this gold readily susceptible to tween which are a plurality of what may be called amalgamation in the Succeeding Docketsriiile plates 1 or trays, each preferably about a The table may be run With trays open at the foot in width and about two to six feet long, protop, 0r any Suitable ooVeI o1' lid may be Provided.

5 vided with a great many pockets 11 extending a satisfactory means of covering the pulp or wet 1 10 sand as it flows down over the trays I have found to consist in a sheet of light weight waterproof cloth 18 suspended at the upper end as from a rod 19 in a manner so that the cloth will rideV on top of the thin layer of pulp 20 passing over the pockets and thereby effectively reduce the tendency to entrain air, and the possible effect of surface attraction of air for the smaller particles of gold.

In operation, the gold bearing sands or material to be treated is screened or otherwise classified, preferably in the so-called wet way with water, and as the gold and other metallic constituents, especially of beach sand, are very fine and flaky, it. is important that a well classified feed should be delivered to the table, though in some cases the gold bearing sands have already been so classified by nature as to require very little further classification. The table is kept under vibratory or shaking motion so that the wet mass will fiow in an even layer downwardly over the table and the rods are kept properly amalgamated by sprinkling a few drops of fresh mercury into the pockets from time to time to keep the rods from drying out through the accumulation of dry amalgam. A few drops in excess of what is required will do no harm as it can not get out of the pocket. Since the rods lie in the bottom of the pockets they only act on the gold and concentrates and not on the bulk of the material passing over the pockets with a result that a particle of rusty gold caught in any rile is scoured clean and amalgamated, the sand being constantly further concentrated in each pocket as it passes.

At intervals the material passes through the special grinding pockets fitted with the steel rod and shoe where any exceptionally refractory material is conditioned as previously explained.

In cleaning up, and which probably will not have to be done oftener than from one week to four weeks with the average run of material, the..

table is stopped, th:A rods are gathered up, trucked to the clean up room and placed in batches in tubes about the length of the rods and warm quicksilver is poured over the rods into the tubes, the covers are clamped on the tubes, and they are revolved in hot water for about ten minutes. The warm quicksilver completely dissolves all of the amalgam. This is poured off and repeated with a second wash, and the quicksilver strained for re-use. The rods are now ready to be replaced. The rods never require dressing as the scouring action of the sand removes any copper oxide which might otherwise form in places.

The rubber trays may easily be unhooked from their supporting pins and slipped from the deck and washed clean in a truck or tub and replaced with a set of fresh rods. The operation of cleaning up a whole table of the proportions given could easily be carried out and the table started again in about an hour with the laborof two men, and who would then turn their attention to another table of the installation, so that but one table would be tied up at a time.

In describing my improvements as above I do so with full knowledge of previous attempts to use loose devices shaking around on screens to assist amalgamation, also the use of stationary amalgamating rods in the form of a griddle, also rods foating on liquid pools of mercury, but none of these have proven practical, the use of liquid pools of mercury with or without rods entails such an enormous weight as well as expense when used in a battery of tables of any size as to make it quiteA out of the question, for if a depth of a half inch of mercurywere used it would take tabout twelve tons per table, whereas I operate with the minimum of quicksilver and constantly keep it bright and receptive. I am also aware of rubber rifile plates having been used, but I believe my use of trays of rubber with pockets having partition and end walls of live rubber, the pockets provided with rounding bottoms in which the rods lie in a manner free to slide and Work against the material and subjecting it to sliding friction against the bottom and sides of the pockets, to be new, as well as the stages of more positive grinding at intervals of several pockets by means of the steel rods and shoes. I also believe the process of treatment involved, i. e. the simultaneous grinding, scouring and amalgamating action within a pocket to be new, as well as the treatment of the rods with warm quicksilver to dissolve off the amalgam, and also other phases of the method of treatment described, and therefore I claim:

1. Gold recovery apparatus comprising a concentrating table provided with successive series of longitudinally extending elongated open-top pockets therein, said pockets provided with end and side walls and a bottom all made mercurytight, a loose amalgamated metal rod lying Within and on the bottom of each pocket of a size and length adapted to jiggle around within the pockets when the same are shaken and move longitudinally therein, means for shaking the table in a manner to shake the pockets longitudinally, and means for causing a fiow of fine gold carrying material from one side across the pockets and subjecting the material to friction between said loose rods and the inside of the pockets.

2. Gold recovery apparatus comprising a concentrating table provided with successive series of longitudinally extending closed end open-top mercury-tight pockets therein, loose amalgamated metal rods lying within and on the bottom of the pockets adapted to jiggle around within the pockets when the same are shaken, means for shaking the table to shake the pockets longitudinally, and means for causing a flow of fine gold carrying material from one side across the pockets and subjecting the material to friction between said loose rods and the inside of the pockets, said pockets formed of soft resilient rubber with end walls.

3. Gold recovery apparatus comprising a concentrating table provided with successive series of longitudinally extending closed end open-top mercury-tight pockets therein, loose amalgamated metal rods lying within and on the bottom of the pockets adapted to jiggle around within the pockets when the same are shaken, means for shaking the table to shake the pockets longitudinally, and means for causing a flow of fine gold carrying material from one side across the length adapted for rocking and endwise sliding motion therein, means for vibrating the concentrator to eieot endwise sliding movement oi the rods in said pockets.

CHARLES BUTI'ERS. 

